February 2021. Texas.
I watched the news footage of families huddled in their cars running the engine for heat. Of people burning furniture in fireplaces never designed for that kind of use. Of burst pipes flooding homes that were already freezing. Over 200 people died during that storm—many from hypothermia inside their own houses, and others from carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to stay warm.
Here’s what stuck with me: most of those deaths were preventable. Not with expensive equipment or elaborate bunkers. With basic knowledge about safe indoor emergency heat without electricity that somehow never made it to the people who needed it most.
I’ve been prepping since 2012, and I’ll be honest—heating was one of the last things I took seriously. I live in Iowa. We get cold winters. But I had a furnace, and the power rarely went out for more than a few hours. It wasn’t until a 2019 ice storm knocked out our electricity for three days that I realized how unprepared I actually was.
Day one was fine. We layered up, used extra blankets, and treated it like an adventure. By day two, with indoor temperatures dropping into the low 40s, my wife stopped thinking it was charming. By day three, I was genuinely worried about our pipes—and embarrassed that I’d spent years accumulating food and water supplies while essentially ignoring the thing that could kill us fastest in a winter emergency.
That experience sent me down a research rabbit hole that lasted months. I read everything I could find about heating without grid power. I bought and tested multiple options. I made mistakes—including one that could have been dangerous if I hadn’t caught it in time.
What I’m sharing with you in this guide is everything I learned, tested, and now rely on. Not theory from YouTube experts who’ve never actually been cold. Real solutions that work, with honest assessments of the risks, costs, and limitations.
Because here’s the uncomfortable truth about emergency heating: most of the advice out there is either incomplete, dangerous, or both. People recommend options without explaining the ventilation requirements. They suggest products without mentioning the carbon monoxide risk. They talk about BTUs without addressing whether those BTUs will actually keep you alive in your specific situation.
I’m going to give you the complete picture. The heating methods that actually work indoors. The safety protocols that keep your family alive. The mistakes I made so you don’t have to repeat them. And a realistic framework for deciding what makes sense for your situation, budget, and living space.
Let’s get into it.
Understanding Heat Loss: Why Your House Gets Cold So Fast
Before we talk about adding heat, you need to understand why your house loses it. This matters because the most effective heating strategy often isn’t adding more heat—it’s losing less of what you have.
During my 2019 ice storm experience, I was shocked at how quickly our house cooled down. We have decent insulation. Relatively new windows. Nothing special, but not a drafty old farmhouse either. Yet within 12 hours of losing power, the indoor temperature had dropped 25 degrees.
Here’s what’s happening when your furnace stops running:
The Four Ways Your House Bleeds Heat
Conduction is heat moving through solid materials. Your walls, windows, doors, and especially your ceiling conduct heat from the warm interior to the cold exterior. Single-pane windows are particularly brutal—they conduct heat roughly 20 times faster than an insulated wall.
Convection is heat moving through air currents. Warm air rises, hits your cold ceiling, cools down, and sinks. This creates a constant circulation that accelerates heat loss through your roof—where most homes lose 25-30% of their heat.
Radiation is heat energy radiating directly from warm surfaces to cold ones. Your body radiates heat toward cold windows and exterior walls. This is why you can feel cold sitting near a window even when the room temperature seems adequate.
Infiltration is cold air literally entering your home through gaps, cracks, and openings. This is often the biggest factor in how fast your house cools. A 1/8-inch gap under an exterior door lets in as much cold air as a 6-square-inch hole in your wall.
Why This Matters for Emergency Heating
Understanding heat loss explains why zone heating—focusing your heating efforts on one small area rather than your whole house—is so effective during grid-down situations.
You’re not trying to overcome the heat loss of your entire home. You’re dramatically reducing that heat loss by shrinking your heated space to one room, then adding just enough heat to keep that small area comfortable.
I’ll come back to this concept throughout this guide because it’s the foundation of realistic emergency heating. The preppers who try to heat their whole house with portable heaters run out of fuel in days. The ones who retreat to a single well-chosen room can stay warm for weeks with the same resources.
Propane Heaters: The Workhorse Option
If I had to recommend one indoor emergency heat source for most people, it would be a propane heater designed for indoor use. Not because it’s perfect—nothing is—but because it offers the best combination of safety, effectiveness, cost, and fuel availability.
Indoor-Safe vs. Outdoor-Only: A Critical Distinction
This is where people get hurt, so pay attention.
Outdoor propane heaters (like the ones designed for construction sites or patios) produce carbon monoxide at levels that will kill you indoors. They’re designed to operate in open air where CO disperses harmlessly. Using them inside, even with windows cracked, is gambling with your life.
Indoor-rated propane heaters include oxygen depletion sensors (ODS) that automatically shut off the unit when oxygen levels drop below safe thresholds. They’re designed to burn cleaner and produce far less CO than outdoor units. The Mr. Heater Buddy series is the most common example—and what I personally use.
Let me be direct: never use an outdoor-rated heater indoors, period. I don’t care what the guy on the forum said about how he did it for years without problems. Carbon monoxide poisoning can happen suddenly after repeated “safe” exposures, and the symptoms mimic flu or exhaustion until you’re too impaired to save yourself.
What I Actually Use and Why
I own two Mr. Heater Portable Buddies (the 4,000/9,000 BTU models) and one Big Buddy (18,000 BTU). Here’s why:
The Portable Buddies are small enough to heat a bedroom or bathroom effectively. They run on small 1-pound propane cylinders (the kind you use for camping stoves) or can connect to larger tanks with an adapter hose. One 1-pound cylinder provides roughly 3-6 hours of heat depending on the setting.
The Big Buddy can heat a larger living area—maybe 400 square feet in reasonable conditions. It burns through fuel faster but provides meaningful heat for a family gathering space.
I tested both extensively before relying on them. In January 2020, I deliberately turned off our furnace for a weekend and heated our 12×14 bedroom with just a Portable Buddy. Outside temperature was around 15°F. The heater maintained the room at 58-62°F comfortably, running on medium setting.
That’s not toasty. But it’s warm enough to sleep, function, and avoid any cold-related health issues.
Fuel Storage and Calculations
Here’s the math you need:
A 1-pound propane cylinder contains roughly 21,500 BTUs of energy. At medium output (around 6,000 BTU/hour on a Portable Buddy), that’s roughly 3.5 hours of heat. A 20-pound tank contains about 430,000 BTUs—equivalent to twenty 1-pound cylinders.
For a realistic winter emergency scenario—let’s say two weeks without power in serious cold—I keep:
- Four 20-pound propane tanks (stored outside in a ventilated area, never indoors)
- Twenty-four 1-pound cylinders (for portability and backup)
- Adapter hoses to connect the small heaters to the large tanks
That gives me roughly 2.5 million BTUs of heating capacity. Running a Portable Buddy on medium 12 hours per day, that’s about 45 days of fuel. Running the Big Buddy for family common areas plus a Portable Buddy for sleeping, I’d get roughly 25-30 days.
Reality check: Propane does have a shelf life concern—not the fuel itself, but the tanks. Cylinders should be recertified every 10-12 years. I date mine with a paint marker and rotate them through my grill to ensure I’m using the oldest first.
The Ventilation Question
Every propane heater—even indoor-rated ones—requires some ventilation. The oxygen depletion sensor is a backup safety feature, not permission to seal yourself in an airtight room.
My protocol: crack a window on the opposite side of the room from the heater, about 1-2 inches. Yes, you lose some heat. You also stay alive. The fresh air intake allows combustion to occur properly and prevents CO buildup.
I also run a battery-powered carbon monoxide detector in any room where I’m using combustion heating. This is non-negotiable. The $25 detector could save your family.
Common Propane Heater Mistakes
After years in prepper communities, I’ve seen people make the same errors repeatedly. Let me save you the trouble.
Mistake #1: Buying a heater but no fuel. Sounds obvious, but I’ve met multiple people who own a Mr. Heater Buddy with exactly one 1-pound cylinder. That’s maybe 4 hours of heat. One cold night. Plan for at least a week of fuel minimum.
Mistake #2: Storing propane indoors. Those 20-pound tanks belong outside or in a detached shed. A leak in your basement could create an explosion risk. The small 1-pound cylinders are safer for indoor storage but still shouldn’t be near heat sources.
Mistake #3: Never testing the equipment. I’ve watched people pull a heater out of a box during an actual emergency and realize they don’t know how to operate it. Some couldn’t figure out how to attach the fuel cylinder. Others didn’t know about the pilot light procedure. Test every piece of emergency equipment before you need it.
Mistake #4: Forgetting the adapter hose. If you want to run your Buddy heater from a 20-pound tank (recommended for extended use), you need a filter and adapter hose. The heater doesn’t come with this. Order it with the heater or you’ll be limited to expensive 1-pound cylinders.
Mistake #5: Running on high constantly. The high setting burns through fuel fast and often produces more heat than necessary. Medium setting in a properly insulated refuge room is usually adequate and roughly doubles your fuel duration.
Kerosene Heaters: High Output With Higher Responsibility
Kerosene heaters were the standard emergency heat source for decades before propane took over. They’re still effective—arguably more effective than propane for raw heat output—but they require more careful handling and better ventilation.
How Kerosene Heating Works
A kerosene heater uses a wick to draw fuel from a tank, where it vaporizes and burns. The combustion produces heat, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and—if not burning optimally—carbon monoxide and other byproducts.
Modern kerosene heaters designed for indoor use (radiant and convection types) burn relatively clean when properly maintained and fueled with the correct kerosene grade. But “relatively clean” isn’t “completely clean,” and kerosene heaters demand more attention than propane.
The Good and Bad of Kerosene
Advantages: Kerosene heaters produce more heat per dollar of fuel than propane. A gallon of kerosene (about $5-8) provides roughly 135,000 BTUs. That same money buys maybe half the BTUs in propane. For extended emergencies where fuel cost and availability matter, this is significant.
Kerosene also stores well for extended periods—up to five years with proper stabilizer and storage conditions. It’s less volatile than gasoline and won’t explode if a container tips over.
Disadvantages: Kerosene heaters require more ventilation than propane. The combustion byproducts are more significant, and the smell—even with clean burning—bothers some people.
They need regular maintenance. Wicks must be trimmed or replaced. Fuel quality matters enormously—using the wrong type or contaminated kerosene causes incomplete combustion and dangerous fumes.
They’re also bulkier and less portable than the compact propane options.
My Experience With Kerosene
I bought a Dyna-Glo kerosene heater in 2017 after reading about their efficiency. I wanted to test it as a backup to my propane setup.
Here’s what I learned: kerosene heaters work extremely well when everything is right. Proper K-1 kerosene, clean wick, good ventilation, regular maintenance. The heat output is impressive—my 23,000 BTU model can warm our entire main floor to comfortable temperatures.
But the margin for error is smaller. I once used kerosene that had been sitting in a gas station tank too long. The heater smoked, smelled terrible, and produced visible soot. I had to replace the wick and thoroughly clean the unit before it ran properly again.
For most people, I recommend propane as the primary emergency heat source and kerosene as a secondary option if you’re willing to invest the time in learning proper maintenance. If kerosene is your primary choice, commit to understanding the system thoroughly.
Fuel Storage Considerations
K-1 clear kerosene is the only appropriate fuel for indoor heaters. Not K-2 (dyed kerosene), not diesel, not jet fuel, not “heating oil.” These alternatives produce more emissions and potentially dangerous fumes.
Store kerosene in approved blue containers (the color coding matters for safety and legality) in a cool, dark location away from living spaces. I keep mine in a detached shed with the propane.
Shelf life with stabilizer: 3-5 years. Without stabilizer: 1-2 years before degradation becomes problematic. Date your containers and rotate through them.
Wood Heat: The Original Emergency Solution
Here’s a heating method that doesn’t require any manufactured fuel: wood. It’s carbon-neutral, locally available in most areas, and provides both heat and the ability to cook food. It’s also the most complex option to implement safely.
The Reality of Wood Heating
If you already have a properly installed wood stove or fireplace insert, you have an excellent emergency heating option. The emphasis is on “properly installed”—meaning correctly rated for your space, with appropriate clearances, connected to a lined chimney that’s been inspected recently, and with adequate ventilation.
If you don’t have existing wood heating infrastructure, adding it is a significant project. A quality wood stove costs $1,500-4,000. Professional installation with chimney work can add another $2,000-5,000. This isn’t a quick prep—it’s a home improvement project that happens to have preparedness benefits.
What About Fireplaces?
Traditional open fireplaces are beautiful and romantic. They’re also terribly inefficient for heating. Most of the heat goes straight up the chimney, and they can actually make your house colder by drawing heated air out of the room.
A fireplace insert—essentially a wood stove designed to fit in your fireplace opening—solves this problem by containing the combustion and radiating heat into the room rather than up the chimney. If you have a fireplace you want to use for emergency heat, an insert is a worthwhile investment.
Critical warning: Never burn inappropriate materials in a fireplace or wood stove. Treated lumber, painted wood, particle board, plastic, and trash all release toxic fumes when burned. Stick to seasoned hardwood.
My Wood Heating Setup
We added a Pacific Energy wood stove to our home in 2018. It wasn’t cheap—about $2,800 for the stove plus $3,200 for installation and chimney liner. But it fundamentally changed our heating resilience.
During that 2019 ice storm I mentioned earlier—before I had adequate propane supplies—the wood stove was what actually kept us comfortable. I was able to heat the main living area to 70°F while outside temperatures dropped to single digits.
The key was having dry, seasoned firewood ready. Wood needs to dry for at least six months (ideally a year) after being split before it burns efficiently. Burning green wood produces less heat, more smoke, and dangerous creosote buildup in your chimney.
I keep one cord of seasoned hardwood (oak and hickory) stacked and covered at all times. That’s enough for roughly 4-6 weeks of heating depending on severity—longer if I’m zone heating rather than warming the whole house.
If Wood Isn’t Practical
For apartment dwellers, renters, or people without the budget for installation, wood heat probably isn’t realistic. That’s okay. Propane and kerosene options work fine. I mention wood because for homeowners who can make the investment, it provides the most sustainable long-term heating resilience—no fuel purchases required if you have access to trees.
Wood Heat Operational Tips
Since installing our wood stove, I’ve learned several things the hard way:
Start fires properly. A top-down fire (kindling on top, larger pieces below) produces less smoke during ignition and gets the flue drawing correctly faster. The traditional “teepee” method actually creates more smoke and takes longer to establish.
Monitor your chimney temperature. A magnetic stove pipe thermometer costs about $15 and tells you when you’re in the efficient burn zone (300-500°F on the pipe). Too cool means incomplete combustion and creosote buildup. Too hot means wasted wood and potential damage.
Clean the chimney annually. Creosote—the tarry residue from wood combustion—builds up in your flue and can ignite, causing a chimney fire. I had a mild chimney fire in my first winter with the stove because I was burning wood that wasn’t fully seasoned. Scared me straight. Now I have the chimney swept every fall before heating season.
Keep ash removed but not completely. A 1-2 inch ash bed actually helps the fire burn better by insulating the coals. But letting ash pile up restricts airflow and reduces efficiency.
Stack wood properly. Wood dries from the ends of the logs, not the sides. Stacking in a single row with air gaps between pieces, ends exposed to air flow, and covered from rain on top (but not sides) produces dry firewood fastest.
Passive Heating Strategies: Working With What You Have
Here’s something most emergency heating guides overlook: you can significantly improve your thermal situation without any active heating at all. Passive strategies reduce heat loss and maximize body heat retention, stretching your fuel supplies dramatically.
The Zone Heating Principle in Practice
When I lost power in 2019, my biggest mistake was trying to heat too much space. I moved between rooms, ran heaters where I happened to be, and accomplished little except burning through fuel.
The correct approach: pick one room, make it your thermal refuge, and focus all heating efforts there.
The ideal room has:
- Interior walls on at least two sides (less exposure to outdoor cold)
- A relatively small footprint (easier to heat)
- A door that closes (contains the heat)
- Space for your family to sleep and spend waking hours
For most people, this is a bedroom. Ours is roughly 12×14 feet with one exterior wall.
Insulating Your Refuge Room
Once you’ve chosen your space, improve its thermal envelope:
Window insulation makes a dramatic difference. Bubble wrap applied directly to the glass (spray water on the glass, press the bubble side against it) provides surprising insulation for almost no cost. Heavy curtains or blankets over the windows add another layer.
Door draft blocking stops cold air infiltration. A rolled towel along the bottom of the door is the quick solution. Draft stoppers or door sweeps are better permanent options.
Ceiling access sealing matters if your room has an attic access panel. Those panels are often uninsulated and leak significant heat. Cover with blankets or rigid foam during emergencies.
Wall insulation is harder to improve quickly, but you can hang blankets or sleeping bags on exterior walls to add an insulating air layer.
During my testing, these passive measures alone reduced the heat required to maintain comfortable temperatures by roughly 30-40%. That’s 30-40% less fuel burned.
Body Heat Is a Heating Source
A resting adult produces roughly 300-400 BTUs per hour of body heat. That’s not nothing. In a small, well-insulated space, the body heat from a family of four approaches the output of a small space heater.
This is why sleeping together in one room is so effective during cold emergencies. The combined body heat significantly reduces supplemental heating needs.
Layer clothing appropriately: base layer of moisture-wicking material, insulating middle layer, and a wind-blocking outer layer if needed. Proper clothing lets you stay comfortable at much lower room temperatures. My family can sleep well at 55°F with appropriate bedding. That’s 10-15 degrees lower than typical thermostat settings, representing substantial fuel savings.
Daytime Solar Gain
If you have south-facing windows and sunny days, solar heat is free. Open curtains during daylight to capture passive solar heating, then close heavy curtains at sunset to retain that heat.
During extended winter outages, this day/night curtain management can meaningfully contribute to your heating budget.
The Emergency Bedding System
Here’s something I developed after my first uncomfortable cold-weather experience: a layered bedding system that keeps my family comfortable at room temperatures that would otherwise be miserable.
Layer 1: Insulated mattress pad. Cold air under your mattress makes you lose heat downward. An insulated pad or even a layer of foam beneath your sheets helps.
Layer 2: Fitted sheet and flat sheet. Normal bedding as your base.
Layer 3: Wool or fleece blanket. Wool retains warmth even when damp. Fleece is a lighter-weight synthetic alternative.
Layer 4: Heavy comforter or quilt. Your main insulating layer.
Layer 5: Sleeping bag rated for cold temps. Unzipped and laid over the top adds serious warmth retention.
Layer 6 (if needed): Emergency Mylar blanket. The reflective material bounces radiated body heat back toward you. Crinkly but effective.
With this system, we’ve slept comfortably with room temperatures in the mid-40s. Not what I’d choose normally, but completely survivable without supplemental heating—which preserves fuel for waking hours when you’re moving around less.
Hot Water Bottles: Simple Thermal Storage
Old-fashioned hot water bottles are remarkably effective for localized warming, especially at night. Heat water on your emergency stove, fill the bottle, wrap in a towel, and place at your feet in bed. The warmth lasts several hours.
I keep two hot water bottles specifically for emergency use. They cost about $12 each and provide targeted comfort that stretches heating fuel further.
Cooking as Heating
If you’re using a propane or wood stove to cook meals anyway, you’re already generating heat. Time your cooking for evening hours when you want to warm the space before bed. A pot of soup simmering for an hour produces meaningful heat as a byproduct of food preparation.
This is one reason I consider cooking capability and heating capability together when planning. They overlap more than most people realize.
Carbon Monoxide: The Invisible Killer You Must Respect
I’ve mentioned carbon monoxide multiple times already. This section explains why I’m so insistent about it.
What Carbon Monoxide Actually Does
Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas produced by incomplete combustion of any carbon-based fuel—propane, kerosene, wood, gasoline, natural gas. You cannot smell it. You cannot see it. And it kills roughly 400 Americans every year, with thousands more requiring emergency treatment.
CO binds to hemoglobin in your blood more readily than oxygen does. As CO levels build up, your blood becomes progressively less capable of carrying oxygen to your organs and brain. The effects are cumulative and insidious.
Low levels (50-100 ppm): Headache, fatigue, nausea. Often mistaken for flu or general malaise.
Moderate levels (100-200 ppm): Severe headache, confusion, drowsiness, potentially unconsciousness.
High levels (200+ ppm): Unconsciousness, brain damage, death—sometimes within minutes.
Why Emergency Heating Is Particularly Dangerous
During normal life, most CO incidents involve malfunctioning appliances—a cracked heat exchanger in a furnace, a defective water heater. These are relatively rare.
During power outages, people suddenly start using combustion heating and cooking methods they don’t normally use, often in spaces with inadequate ventilation. CO incidents spike dramatically.
During the Texas freeze, over 1,400 people were treated for CO poisoning in the Houston area alone during a single week. At least 17 died.
Many of these incidents involved:
- Charcoal grills used indoors (never do this)
- Outdoor propane heaters used indoors (never do this)
- Generators running in attached garages (never do this)
- Cars running in enclosed spaces for heat
- Proper equipment used without adequate ventilation
Your CO Safety Protocol
Battery-powered CO detectors in every room where combustion heating is used, plus one in your sleeping area. Test them monthly. Replace batteries annually. Replace the units every 5-7 years.
Adequate ventilation for any combustion heating. Yes, even with indoor-rated equipment. Crack a window. I know it seems counterproductive. It keeps you alive.
Recognition of symptoms. If anyone in your household develops headache, dizziness, nausea, or confusion during heating equipment operation, get everyone outside immediately. Don’t assume it’s coincidence.
Emergency response: If you suspect CO exposure, get out, call 911, and don’t re-enter until professionals have cleared the space.
I have four CO detectors: one in our refuge bedroom, one in the main living area, one near the wood stove, and one in the hallway outside the kids’ rooms. This might seem excessive until you consider what I’m protecting against.
Why Standard Smoke Detectors Aren’t Enough
I want to address a misconception. Some people assume their smoke detector will alert them to CO. It won’t—unless it’s specifically a combination smoke/CO detector, which many aren’t.
Carbon monoxide and smoke are different hazards requiring different sensors. Check your existing detectors. If they’re smoke-only, add separate CO detection.
The most reliable CO detectors use electrochemical sensors rather than cheaper semiconductor sensors. Look for units that meet UL 2034 certification. Kidde and First Alert both make reliable options in the $25-40 range.
Vulnerable Populations
Some people face higher risk from CO exposure:
Children breathe faster and have smaller bodies, reaching dangerous CO blood levels quicker than adults.
Elderly individuals may not recognize symptoms or may have reduced physiological ability to compensate.
People with heart or lung conditions have less margin for oxygen delivery compromise.
Sleeping people won’t notice symptoms until levels are already dangerous—which is why CO detectors in sleeping areas are essential.
If your household includes any of these groups, be even more conservative with ventilation and detection.
What I Learned the Hard Way About CO
In early 2020, I was testing my kerosene heater in our garage with the door cracked about two feet. I figured that was enough ventilation. After about an hour, I noticed a mild headache developing.
I had a portable CO detector with me (I’d bought it specifically for testing). It showed 35 ppm—below the level that triggers most detector alarms, but above the level for extended exposure. The EPA recommends no more than 9 ppm average over 8 hours.
I was getting a low-grade CO exposure even with significant ventilation in a large space. That experience reinforced how seriously I needed to take this risk. A 35 ppm reading for an hour while I’m awake and monitoring is manageable. That same level at night while sleeping could become dangerous over 6-8 hours.
Now I over-ventilate rather than under-ventilate. I’d rather lose some heat than lose my life.
Other Heating Methods: What Works and What Doesn’t
I’ve focused on propane, kerosene, and wood because they’re the most practical primary heating options for most people. But several other methods deserve discussion.
Alcohol/Ethanol Heaters
Small alcohol stoves and heaters can provide supplemental heat. They burn relatively clean (cleaner than kerosene), produce minimal odor, and the fuel is easy to store.
Limitations: Heat output is modest—appropriate for small spaces or supplemental warming, not primary heating. Fuel burns faster than propane or kerosene, meaning higher ongoing costs. Some units are not rated for indoor use due to flame exposure risks.
I keep a couple of alcohol stoves primarily for cooking backup, with the heating benefit being secondary.
Electric Space Heaters with Battery/Solar
If you have a significant solar and battery setup, electric space heaters become viable. A 1,500-watt heater running for 6 hours pulls 9 kWh—within reach of serious solar systems but well beyond typical portable solar generators.
For most people, the battery capacity required makes electric heating impractical for extended outages. A 1,000Wh portable power station would run a space heater for maybe 40 minutes. You’d need something like a 10kWh whole-house battery system to make meaningful use of electric heat during a multi-day outage.
If you have such a system, great—electric heat is safe and simple. For most preppers, it’s not a realistic primary option.
Hand and Body Warmers
Chemical hand warmers (like HotHands) provide localized heat for 8-12 hours per packet. They’re useful for keeping extremities warm when overall room temperature is lower than ideal.
I keep a box of 40-50 packets in our supplies. They’re cheap, store indefinitely, and provide meaningful comfort during cold emergencies.
Catalytic Heaters
Catalytic propane heaters work differently from radiant heaters—they promote flameless combustion on a catalytic surface. They’re generally considered very safe for indoor use, with even lower CO production than standard propane heaters.
The Olympian Wave series is a popular example. These are common in RVs and boats where ventilation is limited. They’re more expensive than standard propane heaters but offer additional safety margin.
What Doesn’t Work: The Dangerous List
Charcoal grills or hibachis indoors: CO production is extreme. People die every winter from this.
Outdoor propane heaters indoors: Not designed for enclosed spaces. CO builds up.
Unvented gas appliances not rated for indoor use: See above.
Generators in attached garages or near windows: CO penetrates into living spaces.
Running a car in a garage for heat: Even with the door open, CO can accumulate faster than it disperses.
Candles as primary heat: A candle produces roughly 80 BTUs per hour. You’d need hundreds to meaningfully heat a room, creating extreme fire risk.
Terracotta pot heaters over candles: This internet-famous “hack” doesn’t work. The pot can’t create energy that isn’t there. Four candles under a pot produce the same heat as four candles without a pot—roughly 320 BTUs/hour, which is negligible.
Special Considerations: Apartments, Rentals, and Limited Space
Not everyone lives in a house where they can install a wood stove or store 80 pounds of propane. Let me address some specific situations.
Apartment Dwellers
Your heating options are more limited but not hopeless.
Small propane heaters like the Mr. Heater Little Buddy (3,800 BTU) or Portable Buddy can work in apartments with adequate ventilation. Check your lease first—some prohibit any combustion heating.
Electric options with battery backup become more viable if you invest in a larger portable power station. A Jackery 1000 or similar can run a small 750W space heater for about an hour—enough to take the edge off extreme cold while you figure out longer-term solutions.
Community resources matter more for apartment dwellers. Know where warming centers open during emergencies. Have transportation plans to reach them. Sometimes the best emergency heat is somewhere other than your apartment.
Layer your living space the same way you’d layer a single room. If you’re in a one-bedroom apartment, treat the bedroom as your thermal refuge. Close doors to the bathroom and kitchen. Focus all passive insulation efforts on that one room.
Renters
You can’t install permanent heating solutions, but you can:
- Improve window insulation temporarily with removable materials
- Use draft stoppers and door seals
- Stock portable heating equipment that goes with you when you move
- Coordinate with landlords about emergency plans
I rented for the first three years of my prepping journey. Everything I owned was portable. When we bought our house in 2015, that portable equipment became the foundation for our expanded heating plan.
Vehicles as Emergency Shelter
I hesitate to recommend this because it comes with CO risks, but your vehicle can serve as emergency heated shelter if you’re careful:
- Only run the engine with the tailpipe clear of snow or obstruction
- Crack a window slightly even while running the heater
- Never sleep with the engine running
- Use the vehicle’s heat to warm up, then turn it off and use blankets and sleeping bags for thermal retention
During the 2019 ice storm, one of our neighbors spent two nights in their minivan in the driveway after their pipes burst and flooded their house. Running the engine periodically for heat, then shutting off and cocooning in sleeping bags, they stayed safe until help arrived.
This is a last resort, not a plan. But knowing it’s an option prevents panic-driven bad decisions.
Putting It All Together: Your Emergency Heating Plan
Let me walk you through how to develop a complete heating plan for your situation.
Step 1: Assess Your Climate Risk
How cold does it get where you live? How long might you realistically lose power? A three-day outage in Georgia requires different preparation than a two-week outage in Minnesota.
Look at your historical weather patterns and recent grid reliability. The Texas freeze was a wake-up call that “it doesn’t get that cold here” is no longer a valid assumption anywhere.
Step 2: Evaluate Your Existing Infrastructure
Do you have a fireplace or wood stove? A natural gas stove with manual ignition? A propane range? Any existing combustion appliance that works without electricity is an asset.
Many people don’t realize their natural gas stove can provide meaningful emergency heat with the oven door open and adequate ventilation. This isn’t ideal or efficient, but it’s available if needed.
Step 3: Select Your Primary Heating Method
For most people, I recommend:
Propane heater (indoor-rated, like Mr. Heater Buddy series) with adequate fuel storage.
This is my recommendation because:
- Equipment is affordable ($100-150 for a reliable heater)
- Fuel is widely available and reasonably priced
- Safety features are built in (ODS sensors)
- Operation is simple with minimal maintenance
- Storage is straightforward (propane cylinders)
If you’re willing to invest more time and money, a wood stove provides the most sustainable long-term solution.
Step 4: Plan Your Zone Heating Room
Identify your thermal refuge. Measure it. Calculate the BTU requirements roughly 20-30 BTUs per square foot in serious cold—a 150-square-foot room needs 3,000-4,500 BTUs per hour to maintain reasonable temperature in very cold conditions.
A Mr. Heater Portable Buddy provides up to 9,000 BTUs on high setting—more than adequate for a bedroom.
Step 5: Calculate and Store Fuel
For a two-week emergency heating scenario:
At 6,000 BTU/hour average (medium setting), running 14 hours per day (daytime plus evening), you need roughly 1.18 million BTUs.
That’s approximately:
- Fifty-five 1-pound propane cylinders, OR
- Three 20-pound propane tanks
I keep fuel for 30+ days because fuel is cheap when you don’t need it and priceless when you do.
Step 6: Assemble Your Safety Equipment
- Battery-powered CO detectors (at least two)
- Fire extinguisher rated for class B fires (flammable liquids)
- Smoke detector with fresh batteries
- Heavy blankets or fire-resistant mat under heating equipment
- Adequate ventilation capability (identify which windows to crack)
Step 7: Practice Before You Need It
Run your emergency heating setup for a full day before any actual emergency. Turn off your furnace on a cold day and use only your backup heating. Note what works, what doesn’t, and what you forgot.
I do this drill every January. It’s uncomfortable for about 24 hours. It also reveals gaps in my planning that could be dangerous during a real emergency.
Conclusion: Heat Is Not Optional
I started prepping focused on food and water. Those matter. But during my 2019 ice storm experience, I learned that heat matters faster. You can survive weeks without food. You can survive days without water. In serious cold, you can become hypothermic in hours.
Safe indoor emergency heating isn’t complicated, but it requires taking the threat seriously before you need the solution. The time to buy a propane heater isn’t during the winter storm warning. The time to stock fuel isn’t when everyone else is panicking at the hardware store. The time to identify your refuge room and test your setup is right now, while the stakes are low.
Here’s your action list for this week:
If you have nothing: Buy an indoor-rated propane heater and a four-pack of 1-pound cylinders. Cost: about $75-100. This gives you basic emergency heating capability immediately.
If you have a heater: Calculate your fuel needs for a two-week scenario and close any gap. Add CO detectors if you don’t have them.
If you’re already supplied: Run a practice drill. Heat one room with your backup equipment for 24 hours. Note what you learned.
The families in Texas who froze in 2021 weren’t uniquely unprepared. They were normal people who assumed the systems they depended on would keep working. That assumption has become increasingly dangerous everywhere.
You don’t need to be paranoid about this. You just need to be prepared.
Stay calm. Stay steady. Stay warm.